--Know your business strengths, what you are capable of and/or enjoy doing. --The best way to look for help is before you need it. Do research at your leisure. --Always have at least 1 back up in case your first choice fizzles out, moves, or just chooses not to work with you. --Schedule your contact management program to tell you its time to send in your taxes. --Join Financial Action Reminder http://www.coachmaria.com/a/subscribed to receive a monthly financial paperwork reminder. --Take an IRS tax classes in person or online. --Finish your book keeping monthly. --Hire a bookkeeper. --If you have employees, consider hiring a payroll processing company.

And don't stop there. Contact your county, state and local tax department to see if they hold classes; in addition to income taxes, you may find classes for business owners covering business and occupancy (B&O) taxes or sales tax.

Here are some excellent resources to use:

IRS Business Pages http://www.irs.gov/businesses/index.html

Small Business Resources http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html

Take IRS Small Business Tax Classroom Online http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=97726,00.html

Attend a FREE in person IRS Tax Class http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99202,00.html

Call IRS 1-800-829-1040

Choose Right CPA (or Tax Advisor) for Your Business http://coachmaria.com/articles/cpa.html

Best Places For Tax Information http://coachmaria.com/articles axinformation.html

Ask other business owners what payroll or data processing companies they'd recommend.

Know where your state stands on taxes. Washington State Department of Revenue is upping cost of tax mistakes http://www.wetapple.com/headlines/articles/2003-08-01-HED-05.html

Throw away excuses, and create your reserve now.

In our culture, competition, winning and importance of being right are taught. These behaviors are not conducive to good communication and teamwork. Therefore, employer may need to evaluate importance of good communication and teamwork and teach these concepts. One additional concept that partners well with these is benefit of diversity. A group with differing opinions and backgrounds, listening well and asking questions without assumption, with same goal in mind, will ALWAYS have a better result than individual – no matter how intelligent and experienced s/he is.

Listening is half of communication, but is not usually given half of attention in perfecting communication skills. A great exercise to use for improving listening skills is ‘mirroring’. This involves having a conversation about a non-confrontational subject. As first person states his position, second person repeats back what she perceived was communicated. Using this exercise really helps participants recognize how much their beliefs influence what they perceive.

Other important components of excellent communication include ability to let go of ego and need to be right. This does not happen overnight and is often an evolution. Also, this ties in with taking comments personally and working in a team. When one understands that a great result is more important than being right or being star, great result is achieved much faster and easier.

For example, let’s say you’re a member of a project team created to solve a problem. If there is not a listening, team focus on your team, you may be hesitant to bring up ideas for fear of being embarrassed. Or, when you bring up what you believe to be best idea ever, you hold onto it for dear life. If team then wants to change your idea to improve upon it, it becomes an insult. This is not conducive to creating best possible solution and implementing it with full support of team.

Respect is another critical component in effective communication. By treating others as you would wish to be treated, you can learn a great deal, make better decisions and build relationships. For example, say you are trying to have an important conversation with a co-worker, but they seem distracted. At this moment, you have two options. You can continue to try to have conversation immediately, which is what’s important to you, or you can not have conversation right then, and consider why your coworker is distracted. Respecting others’ time can build great relationships, which benefits everyone in long run.

Business communications is complex. A great way to begin improving communications in your workplace is to pay attention to all that’s going on around you and motivations behind current behavior. Ask questions and listen to answers without judgment – you can learn a lot.